About Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated servers are often the fastest and most powerful choices available, though some of the high-end VPS options can give the lower performing dedicated servers a run for their money.

The point is that dedicated servers really occupy the upper strata of the web hosting performance spectrum, and are typically priced accordingly. There are a few benefits to selecting dedicated servers, some of which may or may not be available on some VPS solutions.

One of the major attractions of a dedicated server is that it is generally completely under the control of the customer. Therefore, it can be rebooted when needed and can also be completely customized in terms of the software it runs. Customized software can be very important for a number of reasons, but even if the software is off-the-shelf, not all VPS and shared-web providers give their customers carte blanche to install and run additional software.

In fact, most shared hosting providers have limits to what can be installed in terms of resource allocation, and VPS providers may not always give 100% control of their virtual modules to customers. In short, dedicated servers are usually able to run anything that their hardware can handle.

That hardware is another attraction to dedicated hosting services. VPS solutions share the resources of a single computer in most cases, but dedicated servers put all of the resources at the disposal of a single customer. Memory, hard drive storage capacity, processing power, and network access are all 100% dedicated to a single customer instead of shared amongst multiple VPS customers or dozens of shared web hosting customers.

The result is that performance should be very predictable, which is very important for those who are planning on hosting e-commerce solutions or planning on monetizing their website(s) in other ways.

Benefits of Dedicated Servers

The shared web hosting is an inexpensive entry point for low traffic websites, running within the setup constraints of the standard accounts. As some sites expand, the shared hosting accounts become limiting. Some of the advantages of having a dedicated server are enumerated below:

Performance

You are not sharing the system resources such as processor power, memory and disk space with other sites on the same server.

Greater Reliability

You do not run the risk of the server being slowed down, swamped with traffic, or crashed by another site on a shared server.

Security

As nobody else has access to the server you can be sure of having a much greater degree of security.

Custom Configuration

If you need to install special software or configure the server to your own particular needs then often a dedicated server is the solution.

Custom Firewall

Run your own custom firewall to enforce your own access control policy.

Your own IP address

Most shared hosting sites share a single IP address, with site traffic directed by the server examining `host headers’. In contrast your dedicated server has its own unique IP address.

Upgrade Path

More memory, disk space or extra processors can be added as the need arises.